When Field Marshal J Maneckshaw insouciantly complimented Indira Gandhi's hair style

Taking the liberty of complimenting the formidable Indira Gandhi was not an activity many people dared to undertake in her lifetime. While she was often praised for being “the only man in her Cabinet”, sycophancy was more the order of the day, perfectly demonstrated by the “India is Indira and Indira is India” plaudit by one-time Congress President D K Borooah.

In that context, the revelation at the 10th Zoroastrian World Congress in Mumbai last week that Field Marshal SH F J Maneckshaw once insouciantly lauded his intimidating Prime Minister’s hairdo indicates at least in part why the legendary soldier earned the sobriquet “Sam Bahadur”.

After all, apart from the bear hug that the ebullient Fidel Castro bestowed upon her at the Non-Aligned Movement heads of government summit in New Delhi in 1983, and references in biographies to ardent admirers’ encomiums from her youth, those who have dared to felicitate Indira Gandhi are tellingly few. However, had the swashbuckling Parsi hero of the 1971 war lived in these politically correct times, he may have faced a hostile fusillade or two from activists for this very gallant remark. For, it may well have been judged sexist considering that the old world soldier would probably not have proffered the same compliment to a male prime minister no matter how comely his coiffure.